Bologna, Bologna, Bologna. Oh, how you’ve taken my heart and reminded me what this trip is all about.

And for those who are ignorant like myself, just a heads up: it is not pronounced ‘bo-log-na.’ It is also not pronounced ‘baloney’ like the Oscar Meyer lunch meat. It’s some sultry combination of the two: ‘ba-lone-ya.’ My messy pronunciation got me laughed at, so I’m saving you from the same mistake.

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Lol. I am currently sitting in a piazza while a little band plays and there is a man dancing in front of them very enthusiastically. I can’t tell if he’s with them or if he’s just having fun.

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So, I had a lovely flight over to Bologna, with lots of snow-capped Austrian and Italian mountains in between.

But this did not compare to the beauty of this Italian city. Bologna is known as the city of arcades, which seem to be the name for the endless stretches of covered sidewalks aired-out by thousands of archways.

Bologna is a university city, and the story goes that when the city needed to build more apartments for the growing number of students, they didn’t want to build the city outward, sprawling into the surrounding hills. So instead, they built inward, thrusting the apartments out into the city streets and leaving covered sidewalks underneath this city of homes that starts one floor up.

There are also dozens and dozens of churches and cathedrals, seemingly on every block, and soooooo much food. Bologna is a food city if ever there was one. Wine, pasta, pizza, meats and cheeses and olive oil. Ugh. Drooling.

I started the morning with some wanderings while I waited for my turn to climb the taller of the two towers. (That’s actually their name, by the way: Le Due Torri.)

And then it was time! And it was a long way up. I remember my naiivity as I ascended the first set of winding spiral stairs and thought to myself, “I’ve climbed tighter staircases.” Ha! What was I even doing? Bragging to myself? Either way, this brag came back to bite me, even though it went unspoken. The short stretch of spiral soon turned into a boxy roundabout of uneven and heavily worn steps. The width, depth, and height of the steps seemed to vary with each turn. Sometimes it was fine, and other times, I felt dizzy clinging onto the railing with all my might, trying to ignore the fact that my surroundings were eerily similar to that scene in National Treasure where all the staircases spontaneously spring from the walls and fall to their doom.

And every time we came to what appeared to be a final landing, another spiral of stairs lay ahead. It was like an elaborate workout prank, but the glimpses of the view to come kept me eagerly climbing.

The top came finally, and the views did not disappoint! I really don’t think I’ll ever get tired of tower views.

**Unrelated update: the dancing man has stopped dancing, but he still sits nearby. He must be tired.**

Now back to the views:

I was wearing my heavy duty winter jacket because the weather was supposedly in the forties, but I was cursing it the whole walk up. I was grateful for the breeze at the top.

But all too soon, my time was up. Because of the treacherous steps, you have to buy tickets to the tower in advance for a 45 minute time slot. Then everybody goes up, everybody looks, and everybody goes back down again so as not to mingle with the other directioners.

Some more wanderings brought me to a Lindt chocolateria. A familiar chocolate, but this place had unfamiliar and exciting drinks. I chose to indulge, because that’s what I do. They gave me two spoons, and one was made of chocolate.

Then I wandered over to the fountain of Neptune and spent many minutes wondering why the fountain designer had decided to show the double-tailed mermaids in a constant state of lactation. A bold choice.

Next to the fountain was a library, and I took the opportunity to have a look around. This was a fun little library with a cute children’s section, funhouse mirrors, and lots of artwork (including depictions of Taiwan!)

I was searching for a comfy place to read, and I found it in the form of a giant baseball glove. A welcome surprise.

I later found the main welcome hall and yet more fun chairs, including the famous Arne Jacobsen egg chairs. My respect for an institution instantaneously doubles when I find that they provide these Danish chairs for their patrons.

My stomach had been nagging me for some time though, and everybody knows a library is one of the worst (and noisiest) places to be hungry, so I made my way back toward an enticing outdoor restaurant I had passed that morning. Their specialty seemed to be meat and cheese boards, and I chose one that included Parma ham, salamella, ‘bacon,’ squacquerone cheese, carmelised figs, ricotta cheese, and two types of fresh local bread (tigelle and piadina). Uh…. Does this sound like a lot of food? Does it sound too good to be true and too plentiful to be included on one plate? Well, for one, they served it on a wooden platter, not a plate, and for two, it was too much food but just good enough to be true.

I paired it with a glass of the local sparkling red wine, Lambrusco. I don’t normally care for red wine, but I figured the bubbles would help smooth the boldness, and I was correct! It was positively lovely with the meats and cheeses, which were themselves mouthwateringly rich. They were so rich, in fact, that an hour later, my glass was empty, but my board looked untouched. I debated between grabbing it all to-go or hanging out a bit longer. My book was pulling me in, and I had yet to plan out the rest of my stay in Italy. I resolved to book another night at my hostel to give myself the rest of tomorrow to explore, and I ordered another glass of wine to help settle in for more meat and reading. This time, I ordered the local sparkling white wine, Pignoletto. This was also delightful. I made a note to pair sparkling wines with meats and cheeses from now on. (And yes, even then, I was already beginning to plan a romantic picnic upon my return to The Boy.)

The Parma ham ended up being my clear favorite. Salty, rich, with multiple levels of flavor, this stiff, thinly sliced cured meat was oh so yummy. The salamella was a sort of salami, with a similar flavor but a more familiar salami texture. The ‘bacon’ was kind of funny. It’s appearance was like that of very thinly sliced, uncooked American bacon, but it’s flavor was more similar to the Parma ham, and its texture was like mushy butter. It really did smush and slime in my fingers.

A resounding success of a late lunch that lead into an early dinner, and by the end of it, I was content to wander a bit more before heading back to the hostel for an early-ish bedtime.

One of the main reasons I chose this hostel was because of the included breakfast. Meats, cheeses, yogurt and granola, fresh fruit, bread and Nutella, fresh juice… I was eating like a queen. There were some girls at the breakfast table speaking English, so I chatted them up. They sounded Australian, but they were actually from around London, and we chatted about our lives and our travels. On the far end of the table was another girl, and at first I could not tell if she was with the British girls or not. After breakfast, I went to pack up my things (my bunk was already booked for the second night, so I had to change to the room next door). Then the girl from the end of the table came to the foot of my bunk and we chatted a bit. She asked if I wanted to exchange contact info and maybe meet up for a bit, and this somehow transformed into us spending the entire day together, right from the get-go.

She was a sweet nineteen year old Brazilian girl named Teodora, Teo for short. The conversation was slow to warm up, but after an hour or so, it was like spending the day with an old friend.

We had similar exploring priorities, and we spent much of our time wandering to our hearts’ content and slipping into every church we came across.

I’d seen a lot of these crunchy looking pastries in street side cafes and pastry shops, and finally I gave in and bought one. After one bite, I noticed Teo’s smile was covered in a light dusting of powdered sugar, and upon further examination of myself, I found that the same was true of my entire upper body. It’s hard to make out in the picture below, but believe me when I say I felt like a walking sugar plum fairy. Teo took it upon herself to dust me off between bites.

In need of a restroom, we stopped for coffee at a little cafe, and I ordered two delectable pastries with a chocolate espresso, all for less than $4. Vienna seriously needs to take a page out of Italy’s coffee pricing book.

We went ended up back at the Fountain of Neptune and took some pictures – finally, a willing photographer!

And then Teo eagerly pulled me into an old university building that has two ancient classrooms open to the public. The hallways were adorned with frescos and crests.

The first classroom was once an anatomy demonstration hall. The entire room, and I mean, the ENTIRE room, was made of wood: the benches, the stairs, the ceiling, the walls, the carvings of notable physicians and anatomical researchers. The whole thing, with the exception of a grand marble table in the center of the room. This table was where dissections took place.

Highly sanitary, surely. And as I’m sure you can imagine, this classroom is no longer used for such purposes. Probably for the best, though it is one of the most beautiful classrooms I have ever seen.

The other open classroom seemed to be a normal looking lecture hall with modern chairs in rows facing a projector, but upon closer examination of the bookshelves surrounding the room, we found ourselves lost in a sea of famous texts.

We exclaimed and beckoned to each other each time we found an author we recognized. Euler, Laplace, Galileo, Avagadro. (“Agh. I hate him! I hate Avagadro!” Teo exclaimed as she snapped a picture of his book spines. “I want to send this to my teachers.” She’s an engineer, too.)

One of the hallways outside also contained plans for many famous buildings around the world, and I instantly spotted one I recognized from Vienna just a few days before! Small world.

A very pretty building, but the light finally called us back outdoors.

Then we embarked on a bit of an urban hike, or a bit of a pilgrimage, if you’d like. The story goes that one year, in the 15th century Bologna was having such a rainy spring the crops were suffering. In an effort to stop the rain, the people of Bologna planned to bring the Virgin Mary’s icon from San Luca to the city centre to be worshipped, and once they reach the city centre, the rain immediately stopped. This procession has been repeated every year since. However, because this procession often happens during the rainy season of spring, in the 17th and 18th centuries, this kilometres-long covered pathway was constructed. I don’t think such a feat could have been completed in any place other than the city of arcades. Teo and I decided to walk the entire length of the arcade up to the sanctuary. (Ok, so technically we started around archway number 300 on the way up because we only had so much daylight left ahead of us.)

It was a long uphill walk, but it was oh, so pretty, and we took this opportunity to test out our modelling and photography skills, respectively. (Don’t worry. Teo did a lot of modelling too; those pictures are just mostly on her phone.)

It was honestly dizzying and breathtaking to see the beautiful colors that were created as the sunset played on the yellows and oranges of the arcade.

And finally, just after archway number 650, we reached the sanctuary. We were hoping for a cafe or even a restaurant at the top, but we were greeted instead with an ornately decorated cathedral, a sunny, grassy field, and stunning views.

We did manage to find some vending machines tucked underneath the sanctuary, and I tried my first Italian vending machine espresso. This chocolate-infused cappuccino cost me about 75 cents. Delicious! Where can I get me one of these magic machines?

We probably spent very near an hour sitting up in the sun, chatting the afternoon away, but when the sun did decide to go down, the chill set in quickly, and we made our way hastily back down the hill. More modelling ensued.

This time, we really did walk all 650+ arches, and we rejoiced when we finally reached number one. It was a lot quicker on the way down than it had been on the way up.

We were starving at this point, but we were a little way from the city centre, so it was hard to find any decent looking restaurants. To tame the hunger in the meantime, we settled for a spot of gelato. Raspberry and lemon were devine, and I couldn’t complain about the price (less than €3).

I’ll admit that I was being fairly picky when we were trying to choose a restaurant, seeing as it was my last night in Bologna, a city known for its food. I really, really, really wanted some tortellini because I had seen it everywhere and had yet to try any myself. Unfortunately, it seemed that all of the restaurants offering tortellini were slightly out of my price range. We finally stepped inside a restaurant on a familiar street because our stomachs just could not handle it anymore. Teo ordered a pumpkin filled tortellini that was ridiculously delicious (I’m planning on trying to replicate this recipe upon my return to Seattle), and I ordered what I assume is a bit of a comfort food, that is, tortellini in a meat broth. I was honestly pretty doubtful because what I was really craving was some sort of saucy sauce, but I was pleasantly surprised with the tasty dish.

When we returned to our hostel, the British girls were shocked. “Did you just now return from when you left this morning?” they asked. “Yeah!” was our excited response. Their next question was, “What did you DO?” Tehehe.

That night after most of the hostel has gone to bed, an American boy came in, and we chatted for a while. We were actually heading to the same place the next day (more on that later!), and we chatted all about travelling, working, and studying abroad. He was studying in a city near Normandy for the semester and was taking a little trip to visit friends studying in Italy. Very nice boy. As a goodnight, he said, “See you tomorrow!” Unfortunately, he had a morning bus and I just missed his departure.

I started my last morning in Bologna with yet another delicious breakfast from my hostel. Today’s juice was kiwi, and today’s meat was ham instead of salami. The thing about these large and varied breakfasts is that it would be hard to recreate this on my own because of the sheer quantity of foods. I mean, if I only had two slices of ham every morning, it would take me a while to finish a package. The same goes for single slices of fresh fruit, or what have you. Basically, I’m saying I should just start frequenting hostels for the breakfasts.

I started with some solo wanderings through this pretty city. I kind of felt like I had seen all I really needed to see, so I was just taking it easy and wandering to my heart’s content.

Teo and I met up again just for old time’s sake and continued our wanderings together.

We found some more churches and some more side streets, and we happened upon a canal I did not know existed.

Sadly though, the time was fast approaching for me to catch my train, and nothing says “goodbye and nice to meet you” like a proper cone of gelato.

I’ll definitely miss my sweet little travel buddy! I admit it. I’m getting a bit lonely out here, and even though I was not planning for a partner, Teo made my stay in Bologna about twice as memorable and much more special. Now it’s back out on my own. It is seriously blowing my mind that it hasn’t even been a month yet. It seems like it was years ago that I was hanging out with those sled dogs in Finland. This trip is messing with my mind, haha.

Until next time…

Ciao/ best wishes,
-Lizzy-wa